Woolworths sales rise 4.

7 per cent
in first quarter, beating Coles
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Woolworths chief Brad Banducci is winning back family shoppers with cheaper, fresher food
and better service in stores. Jessica Hromas

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by Sue Mitchell
Woolworths continues to take market share from Coles and independent retailers,
lifting Australian food sales 4.7 per cent to $9.6 billion in the first quarter of 2018
after winning back family shoppers.

On a same-store basis, Woolworths supermarket sales rose 4.9 per cent, in line with
analyst forecasts about 5 per cent and outpacing Coles, which last week reported same-
store food sales growth of 0.3 per cent, the lowest since Coles was acquired by
Wesfarmers ten years ago.
It was Woolworths' fifth consecutive quarter of comparable store food sales growth
and followed gains of 6.4 per cent in the June quarter 2017 and 0.7 per cent in the
year-ago period.

Woolworths shares rose 1.8 per cent in early trade on Tuesday to $25.75.
Woolworths is winning back family and big-basket shoppers after investing more than $1
billion over the last 18 months into reducing fresh and packaged grocery prices and
improving service and on-shelf availability in stores.
Comparable transactions rose 4.6 per cent and items per basket rose 1.4 per cent,
boosting volumes by 6 per cent.

Volume growth was slightly offset by food price deflation as prices fell 2.4 per
cent (2.3 per cent at Coles), dragged down by cheaper prices for tomatoes, berries
and lettuce. Excluding fruit and vegetables, food prices fell 1.2 per cent (-1.3 per cent
at Coles).

Online grocery sales rose more than 10 per cent, helped by new initiatives such as
parcel pick-up or click and collect. During the quarter Woolworths established pick-up
points for online grocery orders in all 970 Australian supermarkets as part of its defence
against Amazon.

Chief executive Brad Banducci said the ongoing strong sales momentum was
pleasing, but issued no guidance for the year, saying there was much more work to do
and Woolworths was strongly focused on the Christmas trading period.
Analysts expect Woolworths' supermarkets to return to profit growth this year as the
heavy investment into price and service eases. Supermarket earnings fell 2.4 per cent
in 2017 but rose 13 per cent in the June-half and 8.3 per cent over the year excluding
store staff bonuses.

Mr Banducci was particularly pleased by a turnaround in sales at the troubled BIG W

chain, where same-store sales rose 2.9 per cent, the first growth since the June
quarter 2016 and the strongest growth five years. Total sales rose 2.5 per cent to
$890 million.

Adjusted for the timing of the annual toy sale, BIG W's same-store sales rose 2.1 per
cent after falling 3.9 per cent in the June quarter 2017 and 5.7 per cent in the year-
ago period.

"While it is still early days in our turnaround journey, the first key element in our
plan was to regain price trust with our customers," Mr Banducci said.

"Our relaunched Image Line program, which offers basic items at great prices, has
been well received by our customers and has positively impacted our customer
metrics resulting in comparable sales growth for the first time in a number of
quarters," he said.

BIG W's comparable transactions rose 1.7 per cent and items per basket rose 5.1 per
cent, lifting volumes 6.8 per cent after an 8.1 per cent drop in the year-ago period.

Volume growth was party offset by lower prices as BIG W dropped the prices
of more than 700 key product lines by 20 per cent.

Woolworths liquor business, Endeavour Drinks, also gained market share, with
same-store sales at BWS and Dan Murphys stores rising 3.3 per cent and total
sales by 3.8 per cent to $2 billion.
 During the quarter, Woolworths launched express delivery for BWS following
successful trials to supplement its one hour pick up service.

Woolworths is also outperforming Coles in fuel retailing, with fuel sales rising 4.6 per
cent to $1.2 billion, offsetting a slight reduction in convenience store (merchandise)
sales. In comparison, Coles Express sales fell 9.5 per cent, dragged down by lower
fuel sales.

Woolworths is waiting for Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approval to

sell its fuel business to BP for $1.8 billion, with a final decision expected by the end of
December, 12 months after the deal was agreed.
Investments into price and service also paid off in New Zealand supermarkets, where
same-store sales rose 2.7 per cent and total sales by 3.2 per cent (in New Zealand
dollars) after a patchy performance in 2017.

Woolworths total sales from continuing operations (excluding petrol) rose 3.7 per
cent to $14.5 billion.
WOW

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The Playstation console maker had previously forecast 500bn profit for the period.

Playstation and smartphone part sales have helped the once ailing electronics firm
revive its fortunes.

In a statement on Tuesday, the company also said profit for the three months to
September jumped to 204.2bn yen, from 45.7bn yen a year earlier.

The better-than-expected result was partly due to a rebound after earthquakes in

Japan hit production last year.

Turnaround
Strong sales in its semiconductor business - which includes image sensors found in
smartphone cameras - lifted earnings.

Sony also pointed to healthy sales in its motion picture business thanks to the
success of Spider-Man: Homecoming around the world.

Not all recent films have fared so well.

 Sony wrote off nearly $1bn at its movie unit earlier this year, following several box
office disappointments, including the remake of "Ghostbusters" with an all-female
cast.
Sony has made thousands of job cuts and asset sales, and focused on gaming and
image sensors to drive the turnaround of its business after years of losses.

The company has also increased investment in artificial intelligence, as it seeks to

catch up with US tech giants Amazon and Alphabet.

Updated Jan 31 2017 at 7:16 AM

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Sony takes $1.3b write-down as

Ghostbusters, Angry Birds movies
disappoint
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Play Video
Trailer: Ghostbusters (2016)
by Yuji Nakamura
Sony said it will take a 112 billion ($1.3 billion) write-down in its movie business
after reviewing the future profitability of its operations.

The company said it would book the charge in the fiscal third quarter and is
examining how that will affect its forecasts. To offset part of the loss, the company
also said it would sell shares in the medical web service M3 to Goldman Sachs's
Japan unit, in a deal worth about 37 billion.

The announcement comes two weeks after Sony said the chief executive officer of
Sony Entertainment, Michael Lynton, is stepping down after a 13-year run. The
studio has struggled recently, including with last year's Ghostbusters sequel and a
movie based on the Angry Birds video game. Sony warned in June the division was at
a risk of posting more losses.
"There has been a suspicion in the market that Sony doesn't have a firm grip on the
movie business, but still the amount is a surprise," said Kazunori Ito, an analyst at
Morningstar Investment Services. "That said, with Lynton's departure and this write-
down, all the bad news is out and the attention can turn on their plan for the coming
fiscal year."

The Ghostbusters remake was panned by critics and fell short of expectations at the box
office. Columbia Pictures
Sony shares closed little changed in Tokyo prior to the announcement. Shares listed
in Germany fell 2.6 per cent in light-volume trading after the statement was
published.

"The decline in the DVD and Blue-ray market was faster than we anticipated,"
Takashi Iida, a Sony spokesman said by phone.

The Tokyo-based company is increasingly relying on its video games business, which
generated twice as much income in the last fiscal year as film. Sony's PlayStation 4
console is outselling Xbox One, its closest rival from Microsoft, by about two-to-one,
according to industry website VGChartz.

Lynton's departure capped a tumultuous two years for the division since a cyberattack
blamed on North Korea paralysed the studio. The hacking led to private messages leaking
onto the internet and the departure of film-division head chief Amy Pascal. Sony's
CEO Kazuo Hirai has temporarily relocated to California for six months to oversee a
review of the division and look for a replacement for Lynton, the company said this
month.

'Financial Responsibility'

In an e-mail to employees, Hirai and Lynton said the transition gets underway this
week and turn-around efforts will focus on expanding globally, making more use of
the studio's intellectual property and "realising a culture of financial responsibility."
The e-mail also partly blamed the write-down on "dramatic" industrywide shifts in
home entertainment.

In June, Sony lowered its projection for film revenue in fiscal year 2018 by $US500
million ($660million) to a range of $US9.5 billion to $US10.5 billion. It also lowered
its operating profit margin to a range of 6 per cent to 7 per cent, from 7 per cent to 8
per cent. Sony's Iida said the division's television broadcasting unit, which generates
the majority of revenue, is unaffected and continues to do well.

Sony is increasingly leaning on China to offset the downturn. In September, Dalian

Wanda Group, the world's largest movie screen operator, agreed to invest in Sony
Pictures productions in an open-ended partnership. But a slowdown in movie
revenue on the Chinese mainland has raised doubts about how much the deal will
bolster Sony's performance.

M3 slipped 1.2 per cent prior to the announcement on Monday and is up 17 per cent
over the past 12 months. M3 will continue to count Sony as its largest shareholder
even after the deal, data shows. Prior to the deal, Sony held 39.3 per cent of M3's
outstanding shares.

Read more: http://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/tv/sony-takes-13b-writedown-as-ghostbusters-

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